Airlines Had Problems With 787 Batteries Before Fires

By

Yoshio Takahashi,

Yoree Koh and

Andy Pasztor

Updated Jan. 30, 2013 10:45 p.m. ET

TOKYO—The two largest customers of Boeing Co.'s Dreamliner jets said malfunctions had forced them to replace a series of batteries on their aircraft, even before serious incidents of battery overheating led global regulators to ground all of the flagship 787s two weeks ago.

Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. said it had replaced 10 of the lithium-ion batteries that are used to start the engines and provide auxiliary power—largely because...